And who gave you the right to speak for the taxpayers collectively. Did you not notice who the taxpayers voted overwhelming for in the last election. They voted for a balanced budget and now the government is doing what we voted them in to do. There isn’t any merit in anything you had to say.

Trevor, I don’t agree at all with Rose. There is a movement by conservative governments to undermine all unions, in order to be more competitive with Asia. Liberals here have a specific strategy to that end; break one of the biggest unions first. Taxpayers, who are also union members – public or private – will soon wake up.

I disagree with the perception government is involved with purposefully breaking unions. They are simply protecting the interests they have been mandated to do.
The decline of union membership in Canada and the States has been happening steadily for well over a decade now. The most realistic reason I’ve heard is that the 20 and 30 somethings find the games unions play disingenious and see no value in belonging to a group that demands their conformity and obedience. Wages and benefits for many small and large companies are as good as in union shops without any dues or political posturing that may not represent the individual. Perhaps governments are just following along with the undeniable downslide of the union movement.

Ron, interesting perspective, but with all due respect, this is not the reality – Governments throughout North America are intent to bust unions. Is it a good idea? I guess that depends on where you stand in relation to the labour force; employer or employee. Your view will differ.

The relevant question is whether unions have a place in our economic society. To answer that question we need to look at why the union movement occurred in the early 20th Century. I think you will find employer abuses, and economic slavery of the worker.

Absolutely LorAx. Historically, the union movement accomplished a great service, however, “abuses and economic slavery” hold little relevance in Canada today. Laws are clear and courts are easily accessible to deal quickly with any work related wrong-doing that may come up.
The pendulum has now gone to the opposite side where unions serve their own purposes – to squeeze the absolute most they possibly can from an employer – and now even going over the top by demanding the employer provide their service only in the way the union wants.
In short, more militant unions have overstepped their usefulness to todays society.
Interesting discussion.

A good faith bargained settlement has never been the Liberal government’s objective in this round of negotiations. Consider the asinine “bad faith” LRB rulings which make Public Education a joke and everyone working in Public Education less efficient: teachers, administrators and, worst of all, students.

No, here there is only clear evidence of more clumsy Liberal “invalid and unconstitutional” initiatives for the five BC Supreme Court judges to ponder in October. These very same Liberal labour “strategies” were cited in BC Supreme Court Judge Susan Griffin’s February 2014 decision as evidence of bargaining in bad faith!

If a settlement was never the Liberal government objective, what was? Surely their goal couldn’t have been to endlessly waste provincial revenues in costly litigation or to destroy the ability of all Public Education workers to deliver a quality classroom experience to their students.

Are you serious? How have you missed Iker’s bumbling performance over the past year? He’s even run out of corners to back himself in to. It has to be an embarassment to teachers who just want to teach.

They seem to be showing evidence of good faith bargaining with over 150,000. other Unionized workers. They are all voting heavily to accept the fair offers. Doesn’t look or sound like they feel they are trying to bust their unions?
Perhaps it is time for Teachers to look within?